“The author is adept at tying together what are seemingly separate and unconnected phenomena. Integrating such a complexity (six centuries and several continents) was challenging enough, but it was done with an almost elegant simplicity….”

“Manning challenges three paradigms that have shaped the study of African peoples: (1) their exclusion from studies on modernity, (2) their exclusion from a global integrated study as a group, and (3) their absence of clearly defined thematic structures that encapsulate the experiences of the Africana. Through a new approach to the study of the African Diaspora, Manning shows how African peoples in the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Mediterranean contributed to modernity through Diasporas, networks, mixes, hinterlands, and exchanges on the roads between centers….”